This application is a National Stage Application of PCT/EP2010/006671, filed 2 Nov. 2010, which claims benefit of Serial No. 10 2010 006 611.7, filed 1 Feb. 2010 in Germany and which applications are incorporated herein by reference. To the extent appropriate, a claim of priority is made to each of the above disclosed applications.
The invention relates to a holder for at least one cassette for structured deposition and handling of optical waveguides and of optical-waveguide splice connections.
Apparatuses for structured deposition and handling of optical waveguides and of optical-waveguide splice connections are used in cable networks, in particular in network technology. They are used in particular to protect splice connections at connection points between two optical waveguides.
They are also used, for example, for deposition, branching or splitting of optical waveguides from multifiber units, which comprise a plurality of optical waveguides. A plurality of multifiber units may in this case be combined to form a multifiber unit cable.
When depositing and handling optical waveguides, multifiber units and/or multifiber unit cables, care must be taken to ensure that there is no negative adverse influence on the transmission characteristics of the optical waveguides. Particular attention must be paid to compliance with minimum bending radii. Attention must also be paid to ensuring that the position of an optical waveguide or of multifiber units, once deposited, changes as little as possible during handling, for example when working on the optical waveguides. This likewise makes it possible to maintain the transmission characteristics of the optical waveguides.
For structured deposition of optical waveguides, DE 103 14 262 A1 discloses an apparatus having a frame and having a plurality of splice cassettes, with a plurality of splice cassettes in each case being arranged one above the other, and being attached to the frame such that they can pivot, on a front face and on a rear face of the frame. Fiber guidance elements for optical waveguide fibers are attached to at least one vertically running narrow face of the frame, such that the optical waveguide fibers are guided at the side alongside the splice cassettes and the frame, in the area of the or each narrow face. The document furthermore discloses that optical waveguide fibers are guided by cylindrical shaft bodies of the splice cassettes such that an insertion direction of the optical waveguide fibers into a splice cassette runs approximately parallel to a pivoting axis of the respective splice cassette, and such that the cylindrical shaft body of the respective splice cassette is axially slotted such that the optical waveguide fibers can be inserted into the cylindrical shaft body through an opening, in the radial direction.
This raises the technical problem of designing a holder for at least one cassette, which is used for structured deposition and simple handling of optical waveguides and/or multifiber units, which minimizes any change in the position of an optical waveguide or of multifiber units during handling once they have been deposited, without any negative influence on the transmission characteristics of the optical waveguides during handling.